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Jimmy Carter Elected President
Not well known outside of Georgia, Carter won the Democratic nomination and narrowly defeated the incumbent Republican Party president Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office. -
Star Wars Movie Premier
On May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas' blockbuster Star Wars movies hits American theaters. -
Three Mile Island Meltdown
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, near Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania, United States. -
Mount. St. Helens Eruption
On March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eruption took place on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am. -
Iran Hostages Released
Iran's demands centered largely on releasing frozen Iranian assets and lifting a trade embargo that the U.S. had coordinated. An agreement having been made, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981. -
Assassination Attempt on President Reagan
John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was seriously wounded by a revolver bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding. -
iran/ contra affair
The Iran–Contra affair, often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan administration. -
Challenger Shuttle Explosion
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST. -
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union. -
George H.W. Bush Elected President
Bush, a Republican from Texas and the incumbent vice president for two terms under President Ronald Reagan, took office following his victory over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. -
fall of the berlin wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (German: Mauerfall, pronounced [ˈmaʊ̯ɐˌfal]) on November 9, 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions were overwhelmed and discarded. -
Start of the Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. -
Original U.S.A. Olympic Basketball Dream Team
Their names were already legends before the players were tapped for the roster of the 1992 US men's Olympic basketball team: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, and of course, Michael Jordan. -
Bill Clinton Elected President
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues. -
Rodney King Decision & L.A. Riots
Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. -
Launch of Google
Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California. -
Bill Clinton Impeached by the House of Representatives
Clinton was the second U.S. president to face a Senate impeachment trial, after Andrew Johnson. An impeachment inquiry was opened into Clinton on October 8, 1998. He was formally impeached by the House on two charges (perjury and obstruction of justice) on December 19, 1998. -
World Trade Center/Pentagon/Shanksville, PA Attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California.